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MYCUN Studios
MYCUN Studios, Inc. is an American animation film production company based in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Founded by Geo G. in February 2002, the studio was acquired by 20th Century Fox in 2011. Theatrical releases are mostly distributed by Fox, with the exception of some films that are distributed by other film distributors (e.g. Mister Mosquito is distributed by Universal). It had its own computer-animated company, CGI Entertainment, to produce computer-animated films. Despite being a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox, MYCUN Studios also produces films for other companies to distribute. Originally a joint venture of Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox, the studio has released a total of 10 feature films, including franchises of Dannie, The Wonderful World of Zak, and Goggles. The studio's first feature film was MYCUN: The Movie, released in 2005. MYCUN Studios produced a sequel to MYCUN: The Movie, Legend of MYCUN, three years later. After producing Legend of MYCUN, the company began working on The Wonderful World of Zak, which was released in 2011. Name The company's name "MYCUN" stands for "MinionsYesCarrieUnderwoodNo", and it is pronounced as "My-con." It was first discovered by founder Geo G. in early 2002. Geo stated that the name was a "play-up on MYCIN." The company is also named after the franchise of the same name. History MYCUN Studios was founded in February 2002 by Geo G., along with CGI Entertainment. MYCUN Studios is one of his two main production companies, along with Glass Ball Productions. That same month, the studio announced a full slate of animated projects in development: MYCUN: The Movie, Planetokio, Little Guys, Dannie's Long Adventure, and a computer-animated remake of Sky Riders. The studio announced in June 2002 that it had signed with Universal Studios a four-year picture deal to distribute animated films (with the exception of the cancelled 2002 version of Planetokio, which was set to be distributed by Fox in North America and by Universal internationally). Then in 2005, 20th Century Fox announced that they would handle some of MYCUN Studios' films, starting with Dannie's Long Adventure. The studio's first feature film was MYCUN: The Movie, distributed by Universal (United States distributor) and Fox (international distributor) and released on December 16, 2005, which became Universal's highest-grossing animated film. Before the successful release of MYCUN: The Movie, Universal and Fox were interested to acquire MYCUN Studios as an animation company for both companies, but it never happened. Its second feature film, Dannie's Long Adventure was released by on September 8, 2006, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and won two Annie Awards. Mister Mosquito, released on May 25, 2007, was the studio's first fully computer-animated film and CGI Entertainment's first feature film as well. The studio's first sequel, Legend of MYCUN, opened in the United States on February 1, 2008, becoming the studio's most successful release. Fox distributed it domestically while Universal distributed it internationally. After releasing the first two MYCUN films, the studio decided to move on for a new project that had new original characters. International distributor Universal retained the intellectual property rights to the MYCUN series, even though MYCUN Studios created it. Geo LTD., which is now a subsidiary of NBCUniversal as of 2015, is now the owner of the franchise. In March 2008, MYCUN Studios signed 20th Century Fox to a long-term deal with the studio to finance and distribute feature films for both domestic and international markets. The studio would be bought out by Fox to avoid a repeat while it focused on developing The Wonderful World of Zak. However, the deal did not include the distribution rights of previously released films distributed by Universal, which MYCUN acquired from Universal later in 2011. MYCUN Studios then purchased Universal's distribution rights to the pre-2010 library in September, and since then, MYCUN Studios' current distributor 20th Century Fox has assumed distribution rights to the library. Their fifth film and first stop-motion film, Little Guys, was released on November 25, 2009 and was nominated for four Annie Awards including Best Animated Feature. MYCUN Studios has wrapped up production on 3 Simple Doods and 1 Simple Doodette, which will be released on February 24, 2017. The studio is currently working on The Ronald McDonald Movie (2017), Nature Cat: The Movie (2017), The Wonderful World of Zak 2: Eggs, Pizza & Sugar (2017), Caleb: Legend of the Time Crystal (2017), Dannie 4 (2018), The Monstories Movie (2018), Goggles 2 (2018), Fuzzies (2019), Caleb: Another Dimension (2019), Planetokio (2020), an untitled original animated film (2020) and Imaginary Animals vs. Fuzzies (2020). It has many other projects in development, including A Dino For Fork, a feature-length version of the South Korean short film Alarm, Horrid Henry, Superworld, and The Relaxing House. 2017 and 2018 will mark MYCUN Studios the first animation studio to release five films in the same year. Distribution MYCUN Studios originally had a distribution partnership between Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox. After MYCUN: The Movie, the studio starts producing two films for distribution with Fox and Universal between 2006 and 2007. Dannie's Long Adventure was distributed by Fox only (thus making the studio's first film to be distributed by the said company only) while Mister Mosquito was distributed by Universal only. The last MYCUN Studios film with the collaboration between Universal and Fox was Legend of MYCUN, released in 2008, because of the commercial failure of the film in India. Eventually, Universal and Fox were switched in places, in which Fox distributed the film in the United States while Universal distributed the film worldwide. After Legend of MYCUN, no films were made by the studio that were distributed by Universal, as every film by the studio were distributed by Fox only in both domestic and international markets. With 3 Simple Doods and 1 Simple Doodette and The Wonderful World of Zak 2: Eggs, Pizza & Sugar set to be released by Fox in 2017, the studio started the produce three films for different distribution companies, starting with The Ronald McDonald Movie distributed by Universal, making the first time a film produced by MYCUN Studios was distributed by Universal since Mister Mosquito domestically and Legend of MYCUN internationally, Nature Cat: The Movie distributed by Destination Films (in the United States), by Entertainment One (in Canada) and by StudioCanal (in the United Kingdom), and Caleb: Legend of the Time Crystal distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Despite being a 20th Century Fox subsidiary, MYCUN Studios will produce Fuzzies, Planetokio, and Imaginary Animals vs. Fuzzies for Universal. All of these films are from the Geo G. Cinematic Universe. On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced their intent to acquire 21st Century Fox's filmed entertainment assets. The deal was completed on March 20, 2019. Character rights Coming soon! Filmography Feature films Released films Upcoming films Films in development Cancelled films There are some films that are unmade and unreleased by MYCUN Studios. Some of these films were, or still are, in development limbo. 2002 *''Sky Riders'' - This computer-animated remake of the 1976 action film was developed by C. Elbourn. 20th Century Fox canceled the project due to story problems. *''Nerd Boy'' - The story is said to center on a geeky teenager who becomes a superhero. It was scrapped right after MYCUN: The Movie started production in December 2003. 2003 *''Untitled Futurama film'' - Futurama co-creator David X. Cohen wrote a treatment for a Futurama feature film to MYCUN Studios before the show's cancellation. It was to center on a dilemma for Fry, but it never begin production. *''Greenwoods'' - The project follows the story of a young man who got lost in the woods with fairy tale creatures. 2004 *''Planetokio (original version)'' - In February 2002, a computer-animated film adaptation based on the Planetokio game series was announced to be in development, along with MYCUN Studios' other films in development. This proposed film was specifically said to be based on the first game in the series. It was being directed by Steve Samono and Osamu Sato, the creator of Planetokio. Set to be released in 2007, the cast would have feature the voice cast from the games, including Debi Derryberry, Lauren Tom, George Takei, Maurice LaMarche, and Corey Burton. Due to creative reasons, production was ultimately shut down in 2004, in favor of Mister Mosquito. However, the two lead characters from Planetokio, Iken and Naomi, appear in the MYCUN franchise since 2012. *''Cland Ann 2'' - MYCUN Studios planned a proposed sequel to Cland Ann: The Movie, which was based on the ABC animated sitcom of the same name. It was cancelled before it began production. It was later reworked into Cland Ann: Silo Wilo Strikes Back. 2005 *''The Shackers'' - Back in 2003, this was going to be an computer-animated feature distributed by Universal Pictures, but in 2005 it was dropped for an unknown reason. The plot of The Shackers is unknown. However in 2006 RandomWorks CGI announced that the project has been restarted as Hobo Bunkers and would be released in 2010, but no much else was known, until RandomWorks CGI was folded into Maverick² Animation in 2016 and it was announced by them that production hhas only got 24% done due to other projects and that it would now continue production at RandomWorks and Maverick² Animation. *''MYCUN: The Movie 2 (Original version)'' - This original version of the 2008 sequel to MYCUN: The Movie, Legend of MYCUN, was originally going to focused on Carrie Underwood escaping from jail and reunites her henchmen to track down Gabriel and the MYCUNs and destroy the world. She later teams up with Koba, who was still hiding from the tree from the graveyard from the first film, to take over the whole world. Fearing the world's destruction, Gabriel and his group of MYCUNs (Red, Gru, the Minions, Toon Link, Ico, Yorda, Coraline, Norman and Aggie) venture out to defeat Carrie, Koba and their henchmen and save the world. At the same time, Carrie and Koba kidnap the newcomers of the MYCUNs and Gabriel's favorite other characters. *''Pizza Boy'' - It was described as "a story about a boy who dreams of owning a pizza restaurant." 2006 *''If You Give a Mouse a Cookie'' - An adaptation based on Laura Numeroff's book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. In May 2005, it was reported that the book was optioned to MYCUN Studios, and its development was announced in December 2006 as a 2D/3D animated hybrid film. 2007 *''Mister Mosquito 2'' - Universal was set to adapt Ka 2: Let's Go Hawaii, as a stand-alone sequel to the film adaptation, Mister Mosquito (2007). However, due to the box-office failure, the film was cancelled. *''Rez'' - In 2003, an animated film based on Rez was announced by Universal and MYCUN Studios to be in production. Tetsuya Mizuguch was set to write the film's screenplay, but the production was eventually canceled. 2008 *''Gunboy'' - This proposed project for Universal would have followed a young boy who becomes a gunfighter to defeat monsters in an unknown place. It was planned to be released in 2010, but it was delayed to 2011. Due to a lack of voice cast, they canceled the film. However, it was revived in May 2012 as Untitled Twin Pistol Project. 2009 *''Little Guys 2'' - After the release of Little Guys (2009), Fox had plans for a sequel. Variety stated that the sequel was cancelled due to story problems. 2010 *''Another Code: Two Memories'' - This proposed motion-captured animated film would have been based on the point-and-click adventure game of the same name. It would have been directed by Taylor Grodin and Mike Moon, the directors of Legend of MYCUN. Fox could not afford the rights to the film, so it was scrapped. *''The Nameless Game'' - This proposed feature film directed by Audel LaRoque was to be based on the survival horror video game Nanashi no Game, which follows a college student at Nanto University, Tokyo who becomes cursed by the titular role-playing game, which causes people to die in seven days upon starting. However, Fox refused to green-light the project because it was too dark. *''Castle (original version)'' - Based on the web series by Oscar Johansson, it was originally directed by Michael Wildshill, and scheduled for a Christmas 2010 release. This film was to be the third animated feature film collaboration between Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and MYCUN Studios. However, the project was shelved in June 2006, though it returned development in 2008. 2011 *''Seasons'' - In 2011, Jose Garcia pitched his own film to MYCUN Studios execs, although it never came to fruition. This was later reworked into a personal graphic novel. 2017 Coming soon! Direct-to-video TV Specials Short films Television series Logo Units *CGI Entertainment (formerly known as VerniX Animation Studios) *The Laser Picture Company (2011–present) Theme park attractions While MYCUN Studios has never had its own theme park, theme parks have made rides based on MYCUN Studios films and co-productions. *''MYCUN: Give It A Ride!, a simulator ride at Universal Studios Florida. Also existed at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Japan. Trivia *Starting with their first film ''MYCUN: The Movie, MYCUN Studios started to use the "MinionsYesCarrieUnderwoodNo" wordmark on the back interior of their film soundtracks of some MYCUN Studios films. Gallery MYCUN Studios logo2.png See also Coming soon! References Category:Companies Category:MYCUN: The Movie Wiki Category:MYCUN Studios Category:CGI Entertament